Utopia

Utopia is a combination of three Greek words: Eu (good), Ou (not), and Topos (place). Utopia then translates as “good no-place”. It is important to remember that, being Utopia located in a “no-place”, it is virtually impossible to reach it. As American artist Steve Lambert wrote, “the reason we imagine utopias is to provide a point on the compass that orients us on our travels. Without utopia, were lost – we are traveling without direction, guessing and hoping that we are moving forward. The purpose of utopia is not a destination, it is to give us a specific direction so we can progress”.

Between the 1960s and the 1980s, men and women from all countries got together in several nations in order to build something – a city, a village, a community or simply a way of life – that would enable them to reach (or at least, get as close as possible to) that route of progress and that unreachable destination. In many cases those efforts paid off, at least temporarily. But those were different times. Today, those communities that have survived face brand new challenges under very different premises.

These 18 stories – collected on a a two years photo project – try to tell how those communities changed, and how close they got to making the original utopia they were founded on come true.